About Us
This website is a joint project by the Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Association and the Grey Bruce Local Food Project.
About the Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Association
The Goals of the ACA
ACA Activities, Projects and Field to Fork Feasts
About The Grey Bruce Local Food Project
The Goals of the LFP
LFP Activities and Projects 2008
LFP Activities and Projects 2009
LFP Activities and Projects 2010
About the Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Association
- Finding solutions to problems facing the local food system,
- Increasing economic development opportunities for members and communities,
- Developing agricultural and culinary tourism, marketing strategies, services and products to benefit the Grey Bruce region through membership involvement,
- Education and awareness of the local food movement,
- Supporting the development of infrastructure for easier distribution of local product.
ACA Activities, Projects and Field to Fork Feasts
Annually, the Association will produce The Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Map. In 2010, 25,000 copies of this map will be distributed across the region. The map pinpoints over 140 local food businesses from across the counties and lists their hours of operation and contact information on the back.
Local Food Celebrations: In summer and fall, ACA will be looking to membership to help coordinate smaller local food events in communities across the counties, such as local picnics, BBQs and banquets. These events can be stand alone or in conjunction with other events/festivals.
In conjunction with the Grey Bruce Local Food Project, Grey Bruce ACA is working to grow and improve the Foodlink website, the most comprehensive local food directory in Grey & Bruce.
Grey Bruce ACA cannot realize its goals without the volunteer support of its members. If you can contribute to some of our activities, or have ideas that you would like Grey Bruce ACA to consider, please come forward.
Join Grey Bruce ACA and receive our newsletter of events and activities: 1-888-396-4591 or email info@greybruceaca.com
There is a Membership link on the home page of this website.
About The Grey Bruce Local Food Project
- Promoting the use of local foods and helping to improve the viability and success of our agricultural communities.
- Increasing access to local food by creating links between producers, processors, restaurants, retailers and institutional kitchens.
- Partnering with the Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Association, and other organizations, to grow the local food system.
- Create www.foodlinkgreybruce.com featuring local producers, processors and restaurants.
- Access media opportunities to promote the use of local foods
- Link supply and demand to increase the use of local foods in commercial and institutional kitchens.
- Existing Growers Support Program: Providing a small subsidy to five market gardeners expanding sales into local markets.
- New Growers Support Program: Offering technical support and providing a small subsidy to four market gardeners starting up production to supply local markets.
- Restaurant Supply and Case Study: Working with two restaurant groups in Kincardine and Village at Blue Mountain, helping to aggregate supply and demand, offset delivery costs, and develop promotional material to advertise their local food specialties.
- Institutional Kitchen Case Study: Outreach to the local institutional kitchen sectors (Child Care Centres, Long Term Care, hospitals, schools, etc) to investigate current local food use and opportunities to increase the use of local foods.
- Gap Analysis Study: Bringing together food production and consumption data for Grey and Bruce. See the final report by clicking on the Resources link at the bottom of this page.
- The First Grey Bruce Food Summit: With funding from Savour Ontario, the first event of this kind was held in the Elmwood Community Centre on November 2nd, 2009. Involving over 175 local food insiders attending workshops, meet and greet, a local food luncheon and wine and cheese; providing valuable networking, feedback on 2009 projects and planning for 2010.
Goals, Activities and Projects for 2010
The goals of the LFP this year are:
- To promote local foods to the general public and sustain a presence in the local media.
- To deliver demand side information and offer supply side technical assistance and financial incentives (stimulus grants) to producers to meet unsatisfied local market demands.
- To establish a Farmers Market Network in Grey and Bruce.
- To explore a Food Charter for Grey Bruce.
- To outreach and create links to increase the use of local foods in Institutional kitchens.
- Foodlink Website Upgrade: Foodlink Grey Bruce website development will include a self-edit feature for the farms and food businesses to update their own listing information.
- Local Food Fact Sheets & Producer Profiles: Working with ACA to create and distribute existing and new promotional and educational material about our local food bioregion.
- Procuder Marketing Program: Providing financial assistance to growers to market their produce locally. Applicants will submit a production and marketing plan and participate in the Food Summit in the fall of 2010.
- Video & Print Media Contest: To establish two awards for high schools students, for a local food story and promotional materials; one in video and one in print. Award winners will participate in the Food Summit in the fall of 2010.
- Grey Bruce Food Charter: Researching content and process, and making presentations to explore the interest and support for developing local food security.
- Farmers Market Network: To network with local Farmers Markets and collaborate on efforts to solicit vendors and promote farmers markets to consumers.
- Seasonal Produce Promotions: To provide access to promotional material and funds for use by producers, Farmers Markets and local food businesses; especially for short-season produce.
- Institutional Sector Pilot Project: Working with County run Long Term Care Facilities to link with suppliers to increase use of local foods.
- Grey Bruce 2nd Food Summit in the fall of 2010: By invitation only, this event is for the folks involved in the local food system. To provide a valuable opportunity to network, celebrate and share feedback and input to the work of LFP.
Field to Fork
Come out and enjoy the seasonal produce our farms provide and celebrate the seasons often by shopping at the Farm Gate and Farmers' Market and businesses supporting local farms.
Come out and Pick Your Own- look for U-pick farm listings and recipe links in with the Announcements and preserve some of the season's favourites to enjoy through the year!
